VITIcast®

VITIcast™ is a disease pressure warning model. This models gives growers a sense of the day and the year, in terms of it being more or less favourable to grape diseases; and the data useful in determining whether to adjust their spray schedule accordingly. Growers can also see how disease pressure varies from one location to the next.

The daily disease pressure map provides two pieces of information. The first piece of information that it displays is the daily disease pressure value. These values range on a scale of 0 to 7, where a value of 0 indicates little disease pressure and is represented by a green colour. A value of 7 indicates heavy disease pressure and is represented by a red colour. The disease pressure contours are generated, using data collected from additional sources to the weather stations labelled within the selected zones, to improve precision. The second piece of information that the map displays is the accumulated disease pressure for the growing season, beginning on May 15 of that particular year. The accumulated pressure is displayed as a number on the map.